World Bank and EIB chiefs call for greater financial engagement and technical cooperation to fight climate change

World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim and European Investment Bank President Werner Hoyer today confirmed the commitment of their respective institutions to support climate related investment. They further highlighted the crucial need to scale up engagement through enabling greater private sector involvement in climate finance.

The Presidents opened the first dialogue with leading government and business leaders involved in climate finance to be jointly hosted by the World Bank and European Investment Bank on the eve of the Spring Meetings of the World Bank and IMF in Washington DC.

“It is time for renewed action to address the global risk of climate change and 2015 provides a unique opportunity to focus on this fundamental threat. It is crucial to encourage a shift that delivers a more resource efficient, climate resilient and low-carbon global economy. Europe has a firm commitment to addressing climate change and the European Investment Bank, as the EU Bank, will build on a strong track record to address these challenges. Enabling greater involvement of private finance is essential to support investment that reduces emissions and tackles the risk of a changing climate.” said European Investment Bank President, Werner Hoyer.

Focusing on essential action needed to scale up climate finance the climate symposium addressed specific challenges hindering increased investment in forestry, energy efficiency, adaptation and renewable energy. Leading and experienced public and private sector practitioners from around the world shared understanding of how projects or national climate strategies have unlocked domestic and international climate finance and attracted greater support from the private sector.

The two multilateral financial institutions play a leading role providing financial and technical support for climate finance around the world. The Presidents of the World Bank and European Investment Bank emphasised the importance of sharing experience from existing policies and financial instruments to identify successful approaches to climate that could be replicated.

The European Investment Bank supports investment in low-carbon and climate resilient projects across Europe and around the world and is committed to ensuring that 25% of lending supports climate action. In 2014, the European Investment Bank provided EUR 19.1 billion for climate action projects, and EUR 90 billion for the last five years.